


The Big Tree And The Little Acorn

by ColourAndCity



Category: ATEEZ (Band), K-pop
Genre: Adopting and caring for a kitten, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Fluff, Kitten causing a whole lot of trouble, Kittens, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22130590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColourAndCity/pseuds/ColourAndCity
Summary: While out doing some work, Yunho finds a tiny injured kitten that has been carelessly abandoned on the side of the road. He vows to take care of it with the help of San and Mingi. Seonghwa, however, has a strict "no pets" rule in the mansion.But sometimes rules are meant to be broken.
Relationships: Choi Jongho/Song Mingi, Choi San/Jeong Yunho, Jeong Yunho/Song Mingi
Comments: 20
Kudos: 216
Collections: Collection - Another Name for the Devil, 에이티즈





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ScarlettSiren](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarlettSiren/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Another Name for the Devil](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17713091) by [ScarlettSiren](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarlettSiren/pseuds/ScarlettSiren). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are just stumbling upon this fic by chance, I highly recommend reading ANFTD listed in the associated collections first as not only is it a wonderful story, it provides the majority of the context needed for this spinoff (who is a vampire, who is not and why). There are also severe ANFTD spoilers in this fic.

In order to have a cohesive family there always need to be some ground rules.

Seonghwa cared ever so deeply for his coven and while he did not enforce many strict rules, there were still some that he had put in place more as guidelines to protect his precious family members; always contact someone to let them know if you are going to be out after dawn, always respect the rules of consent, and absolutely no pet animals in the mansion. The no pets rule wasn't so much to prevent members from having them or enjoying their company, but more so to prevent the eventual heartache of losing something much more finite lifespan.

But even if rules are set, some are bound to eventually be broken.

***

The mansion's security system had been requiring some much-needed upgrades for the past decade but Mingi, who was technically “in charge of security” as he had appointed himself, had never bothered looking much into it. At least not until Yunho arrived.

Yunho had been blessed with a state-of-the-art forge but had requested a couple of additional upgrades that Seonghwa was all too willing to have installed for him. The only downside was that during these renovations he wouldn't have access to his forge so he needed to find something else to occupy his time between missions. Most nights he would just idly wander, trying to find things to do until he could go back to work on his projects.

On one of these idle nights, Yunho decided to pay Mingi a visit in his security room.

Maybe he could help Mingi with something... anything.

Mingi was somewhat confused as to why Yunho would want to hang out in the security room of all places but obliged to let him stay for awhile and ushered him into the room, offering up a chair. Mingi proceeded to go back to work trolling through the hunter forums in search of any new leads on a project he had been looking into.

Instead of taking the chair Mingi had offered, Yunho wandered around the small space looking over all the equipment. He soon noticed how small and cramped the room actually was and how the majority of the equipment was running on a system that was at least as old as he was, if not older. He spent quite awhile just taking in all the new and ancient miss-matched technology that Mingi had amassed over the past several decades.

"Hey, uh Mingi?" Yunho asked cautiously while thumbing through some controls on one of the security screens. "When was the last time you had any of this updated?"

Mingi, who had been sitting in a rolling chair across from him with his feet propped up on the desk and laptop precariously balanced on his lap, leaned back in his chair and craned his neck back to give Yunho a slightly vacant look. "I dunno, maybe… 08?"

"Two thousand or nineteen?" Yunho quipped sarcastically as he flicked on a screen that showed an ancient DOS command prompt. Yunho gave a bit of a cringe at how old and grainy the screen was as the commands wavered in and out of focus in front of him.

"Hey this is some state-of-the-art stuff!" Mingi retorted with a hint of offence in his voice as he removed his feet from the desk and wheeled around to face Yunho.

"Yeah maybe if this was 1975.” Yunho mumbled.

“Nineteen sevent—how _dare_ you come into _my_ security room and criticize _my_ technology!” Mingi huffed. “We have some of the fastest wifi in the province and look at this laptop!” He snapped the laptop closed and brandished it in the air with raised eyebrows “It's like a—what year is it?”

“2023.”

“It's like a _this year_ model! You can't get anymore new than literally right now.”

“Whatever you say.” Yunho laughed, raising his hands in mock defeat. “This computer here though... its serial number is from 1998.”

“Yeah, so?” Mingi scoffed tossing his laptop on the desk carelessly.

“It's literally older than I am.”

“What? No it's not.” He exaggeratedly rolled his eyes.

“Mingi, I know you're a million years old but I was born in 1999.”

Mingi stared at him blankly in disbelief for a moment before simply exclaiming _fuck_.

“Anyways, I've got some free time, what say we update some of this?” Yunho said with a beaming smile.

“I mean, if you've got nothing better to do I _guess_ I can let you help.” Mingi muttered.

“Why don't we start with the proximity sensors.” Yunho said, half preoccupied while starting to shuffle through the unorganized and cluttered drawers of cables and spare parts Mingi had hoarded. “Look at that screen, one of the sensors by the main road is giving a trouble signal.”

“It's fine. It always does that. It's not showing that it's been tripped so—”

“Yeah but it could easily throw off the whole system. Enough troubles popping up and it would be easy to miss an alert when something actually _is_ tripped. I could easily head out there, replace the sensor head, rewire the connection and check the conduit for any cracks, come back, reboot the panel, maybe give it a bit of a toggle just to be sure and boom! Problem solved and no more trouble signal.”

Mingi leaned forward staring at Yunho, his mouth slightly agape.

“I-is something wrong?” Yunho stuttered, blushing slightly at Mingi's intense stare.

“No, that was just the hottest thing I've ever heard you say.”

Yunho bust into a fit of nervous giggles, scratching the back of his head, his face and ears having flushed bright red. “No, no it's a simple fix. It's really nothing.”

“Let's do it. But first there's something else I want to do...” Mingi looked over Yunho with an intense hunger as he grabbed onto Yunho's shirt and pulled him towards him.

\--

Much, _much_ later Yunho finally headed out down the long driveway of the mansion with a bag of tools and supplies to go replace the faulty sensor. He had borrowed one of Hongjoong's earpieces so he could communicated with Mingi who had stayed in the security room to keep watch for when the trouble signal disappeared and to help direct Yunho to the exact location of the sensor. As he walked he gave his neck a crick to the left and right.

“Ugh that room was way too cramped.” He muttered to himself as he tried relentlessly to remove the persistent kink in his neck.

The driveway was close to 2 km long before it connected with the main road so it took Yunho quite some time before he was even within range of the sensor.

“The sensor's about 100 m up on your left.” Mingi instructed through the earpiece.

“Okey dokey, roger that!” Yunho replied as he started into a light jog to reach the spot Mingi indicated.

It wasn't much longer before Yunho reached the spot, found the sensor and got to work.

“How's it lookin'?” Mingi asked after a few minutes.

“Just about... done... There! Check the panel.”

“Trouble's gone! Amazing!”

“Perfect!” Yunho said grinning to himself. “Just reboot the panel and I'll be back in a few minutes!”

“Right! Will do!”

Yunho packed up his stuff and went to make the long trek back to the mansion.

_Mew._

Yunho paused and looked back over his shoulder. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Mingi asked through the earpiece.

“Nothing, I just thought I heard something.” Yunho mumbled.

“Alright, well don't stay out there too long.”

“On my way back right now.”

_Mew._

Yunho definitely heard it that time. He took the earpiece out so he could hear it better...

_MEW._

He cautiously started walking further down the driveway towards the sound of the noise. It wasn't long before he spotted a small, damp cardboard box in the ditch off the side of the road.

_MEW._

Yunho approach the box and carefully opened the lid. Peering inside he saw the tiniest little brown tabby kitten, huddled into a corner looking up at him with large, scared eyes. It gave an excited little mew when it saw him.

“Oh no!” Yunho said in a tiny voice. “Oh no little baby! You precious little acorn. What are you doing out here?”

_Mew._

“Who would ever leave you out here? Come here.” Yunho said as he carefully picked up the tiny kitten in his large hands. “Are you injured?”

_Mew._

“Yes, but where?” Yunho replied with a bit of a laugh, pretending to understand the kitten.

The kitten was so small he could cup it in just a single palm. He carefully looked it over and noticed its back leg was bloody.

“Oh nooo! We need to get you inside and get you fixed up!”

Without a second thought, Yunho tucked the tiny kitten into the breast pocket of his jacket and rushed back to the mansion. He could feel the tiny kitten vibrating and quietly purring as he jogged back.

\--

Yunho rushed into the front foyer of the mansion with the tiny kitten tucked tightly against his chest. San was happily trotting down the stairs, headed towards the feeding room when he took notice of him.

“Where have _you_ been?” He asked playfully.

“Out fixing the proximity sensors for Mingi.”

“Typical lazy Mingi, always getting others to do his work for him.” San said with an eye roll as he went to continue on his way.

San suddenly halted his pace, turning back around to face Yunho with a curiously sly expression on his face.

“What's that sound?” He said inclining his head slightly.

“What sound? Oh uh, nothing, must be my stomach? I'm just a little hungry.” Yunho replied with a nervous laugh.

“No, that's not it. And that smell...”

Yunho cautiously took a step back away from San.

“What's in your breast pocket?” San said, his tone colder as he approached uncomfortably close, eyes fixed on the bulging spot on Yunho's coat.

Yunho hesitated. “San please...”

“Show me.”

“Okay but you can't tell anyone...” Yunho carefully opened up his coat and loosened his grip to show San the tiny kitten that was hiding there.

The kitten gave a soft _ppbrrrrt_ with large, glassy eyes when it saw San and San's disposition immediately softened.

“Oh my god.” San loudly cooed at the tiny kitten. “It's so small and adorable and cute.”

“Not so loud.” Yunho shushed him. “I know Seonghwa doesn't like animals in the house and I don't want him finding out.”

“Look at its wittle paws.” San continued, wiggling its front paw with his finger.

“I need to get her to Mingi so we can stitch her up.”

“Mingi? Why Mingi?” San scoffed. “What can he do?”

“The security room is soundproof. I can keep her in there undetected until the renovations in my forge are done and I can move her there until she's better.”

San gave a quick look around as if scanning if anyone was nearby, didn't say another word and quickly ushered Yunho back to the security room.

In minutes, they had barged into Mingi's security room, throwing him completely off guard.

“What...” Mingi started to say, noticing San was with Yunho. “...Took you so long?” He noticed both of them seemed kind of panicked.

“San, go get one of Seonghwa's first aid kits.” Yunho instructed as he carefully removed his coat, wrapping it around the tiny kitten as he set it down on the one empty table in the room.

“First aid kit?” Mingi asked with a look of bewilderment. “Did something happen?!” Mingi's eyes settled on the small blood stain that had soaked into Yunho's shirt through his coat pocket. “Oh my god Yunho are you alright? Do you need some of my blood?!”

“What?” Yunho quickly turned to look back at Mingi who was seconds away from biting into his own wrist. “No! No, no, no, I'm fine! It's not me, it's her.” Yunho stepped back revealing the tiny kitten wrapped in his jacket. “She's injured and needs our help.”

“Oh...” Mingi blurted out, lowering his wrist and taking a step closer to take a look at the kitten. “OH!”

San rushed back into the room with the large first aid kit.

“San, can cats handle vampire blood?” Mingi asked absentmindedly. “You know, for healing?”

“No, you idiot.” San scoffed as he aggressively pushed all the papers on one Mingi's desks onto the floor and opened up the first aid kit to start sorting out what items they would need. “Thank you Seonghwa for always being prepared.” He muttered.

“What exactly do you guys plan to do?” Mingi asked while hovering over the two of them.

“I have basic medical training.” Yunho said partially to himself as a statement of self-assurance. “I'm going to clean up her wound and take a look at what we are really dealing with.”

Yunho immediately gets to work, first surveying the full extent of the injuries. The little kitten had a badly injured back leg and a couple other superficial cuts and scrapes. San passed him each item from the first aid kit as he asked for it and within no time the majority of the injuries were cleaned and treated. The one big glaring issue was the kitten's leg. The wound was far too deep for bandages alone, it would require stitches.

“San can you see if there are any surgical thread and needles in the kit? I'm going to have to stitch this up.”

San found the items and quickly handed them to Yunho. Yunho threaded the small surgical needle but his hands were now shaking far too much to work on such a tiny patient safely. San, who had been watching intently the entire time, had picked up on Yunho's increased stress levels. Yunho was hesitating.

“You've done a good job Yunho, let me take it from here.” San remarked in a soft tone, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. Yunho gave him a relieved nod in return and let out a small sigh.

San calmly took the needle out of Yunho's hands and softly pushed him aside with his hip.

“Keep her distracted while I do this, it's going to be a little painful and I don't want her squirming.”

Yunho started doting on the little kitten, talking to it and petting it and scratching under its chin as it lightly purred. San cleanly stitched up the kitten's leg in no time at all. In true San fashion, after he was finished and tied off the stitches, he coolly used his teeth to cut the thread. Mingi was amazed that San had any medical training whatsoever.

“Where did you learn to do all that?” Mingi asked in awe.

“Sometimes it's just a necessary skill to have.” San responded vaguely while he started to clean up and pack away the first aid kit.

“But we can heal ourselves. That still doesn't explain where you learned that...”

“Then I guess it shall remain a mystery, dear Mingi.” San teased while turning to give him a light tap on the nose.

Yunho finished up bandaging the kitten's leg now that the wound was stitched up and soon the kitten had been all taken care of and they were all able to relax a little.

“So uh...” Mingi asked. “Are we going to keep it?”

Yunho and San exchanged questionable glances.

“No, no we can't...” Yunho started to say.

“Seonghwa would be pissed...” San continued.

“Once she's all healed up then... then we will figure out what to do.” Yunho said confidently.

“So what are we going to name her...?”

“Do you think that's a good idea? Wouldn't it just created additional attachment?” San asked.

“I mean we can't just call her 'kitten' can we?” Yunho replied. “How about... Dotori. It means acorn. Small and cute just like she is.” He wiggled his finger endearingly at the kitten and it gave a playful swat at him.

“Big tree, little acorn.” San cooed while endearingly looking Yunho up and down. “Absolutely adorable.”


	2. Chapter 2

Dotori had been healing quite nicely and quickly to boot. San and Yunho had taken turns redressing her bandages and checking to make sure the stitches were still in place. It wasn't long before they were able to remove the bandages and she playfully began to hop around Mingi's security room. More often than not Yunho would find her perched on Mingi's shoulder or lap as he worked. Mingi had also borrowed (re: stole) a pair of Jongho's noise-cancelling headphones solely because her purring was so loud and distracting for him that he needed something to block out the noise.

Yunho, San, Mingi and little Dotori had become a little family of their own in that security room.

***

Several days had passed and renovations were finally done with Yunho's forge and Yunho was now tasked with moving Dotori down there without being noticed. He waited until everyone had settled into their nightly routines and had enlisted San to help while Mingi kept watch on the surveillance cameras.

Yunho was carrying the makeshift bed they had provided her with that was made out of half of an old cardboard box with an old pillow throw in it and “도토리” scrawled across the front in Mingi's messy handwriting. He had covered it with a blanket to help keep her inside and out of sight. They had barely made it out of the security room when Dotori managed to wriggle free from the blanket and leaped down from the box in Yunho's arms.

“San! Quickly! Grab her!” Yunho cried as he saw her escape.

San pounced but the kitten was just slightly too fast and too small and she slipped out of his grasp and sprinted down the hall.

“Dotori! Get back here!” San hissed.

He clambered to his feet and chased after her while Yunho quickly made his way down to the forge with the rest of the stuff.

Meanwhile, in the mansion's library Wooyoung had been helping conduct research for Yeosang but had unintentionally fallen deep asleep when left alone, having stayed up entirely too late the day before. The door to the room had been left open a crack and of course Dotori squeezed through with not problem at all and scampered inside.

Dotori timidly explored the room a little before coming across Wooyoung draped across the sofa, his hand hanging limply over the edge. She quietly approached, giving his fingers a cautious sniff before gently licking them. Wooyoung stirred slightly at the sensation and Dotori jumped back having been startled by the sudden movement.

She paced around the couch leg in tiny kitten contemplation.

Craning her neck, she looked up at Wooyoung and gave a small wiggle before taking a running start and jumped up onto the arm of the sofa. Carefully she made her way along the edge of the sofa until she was right above Wooyoung's face. She gave him a curious sniff as her whiskers tickled his face and she gently pawed at his hair. Wooyoung let out a quiet hum in his sleep.

San was frantically searching outside the room and calling “Dotori!” over and over in a strained whisper. Dotori paid him absolutely no mind as her focus was now only on the sleeping Wooyoung.

With a little chirp she began happily nuzzling and licking the side of his face.

“Mmm Yeosang please.” Wooyoung mumbled in his sleep, swatting the air playfully with his hand.

The tiny kitten jumped back but once Wooyoung had settled again she gave him a couple more playful licks before hopping down on the cushion his head was resting on. She nuzzled under his jaw, pawing at one of the earrings that loosely dangled from his ear.

Wooyung gave a bit of a giggle while muttering “Stop, Sangie stop! ...mmmtickles.”

By this point San had finally spotted Dotori in the room and had rushed in as she was curled up on top of Wooyoung. He quickly and carefully tried to extract her but as soon as he had lifted her off of Wooyoung she let out a loud, distressed mew which was apparently enough to finally wake Wooyoung from his sleep. San was quick to shove her behind his back so Wooyoung wouldn't see her.

“San?” Wooyoung said in a tired voice while sitting up and rubbing his eyes, noticing San standing looming over him.

“Good morning.” San said cheerfully with a bright smile that accentuated his dimples.

Wooyoung lazily wiped his wet cheek with the back of his hand. He looked at his hand mildly confused and then looked back up at San.

“Was it... you... who did this?” Wooyoung hesitantly asked.

“Uhhhhh... yes? Did you... like... that?” San awkwardly lied with a suggestive raised eyebrow.

“Not particularly... the licking was a little weird... but whatever you're into... I guess?”

“Okay well I think I hear Yunho calling me so I better get going.” San said with a nervous laugh as he turned and bolted for the door while carefully manoeuvring the small kitten to keep her out of Wooyoung's line of sight.

As soon as he had exited the room he held the kitten out in front of him and she mewed happily.

“Don't take that tone with me.” He said in a playfully grumpy tone.

_Mew._

“How dare you kink shame me in front of Wooyoung for a kink that isn't even mine! You are such a naughty girl.”

He carefully cuddled her in his arms and she started purring as he carried her down to the forge where Yunho was severely relieved to see the two of them.

\--

Hongjoong walked into Seonghwa's bedroom having just come from the shower. His hair was still damp and he had a towel slung around his neck. Seonghwa was sitting in bed, reading one of his many books and Hongjoong came over and threw himself down on the bed beside him.

“You know,” Hongjoong started to say as he was towelling off his wet hair. “There are some things about this new life that I still can't seem to grasp.”

“And what would that be?” Seonghwa asked calmly as he put down his book, focusing all his attention on Hongjoong.

“I swear some nights I'm going crazy.” Hongjoong towelled more aggressively. “I keep hearing this... this _sound_.”

“What sort of sound? Your senses have been heightened tenfold, it could be an everyday sound that has only now become apparent to you.”

“No, no it's like... I don't know. It's like... like a buzzing? A humming? It comes and goes but it has been driving me crazy.”

“Are you hearing it right now?”

Hongjoong gave the side of his head a couple hard taps to get the water out of his ears. He concentrated but could not hear the sound. “No.” He let out a heavy sigh.

It wasn't even 15 minutes later, Hongjoong had curled up next to Seonghwa in bed, when he sat bolt upright in the bed. “There! There it is! The sound!”

Seonghwa took a deep breath and focused his hearing, trying to pinpoint the sound Hongjoong had mentioned. It was not long at all when he picked up on it. “Ah, it appears to be coming from Yunho's forge. I wouldn't be alarmed, I assume it is just one of the secrets he's hiding down there.”

“You're probably right.” Hongjoong sighed as he flopped back down on the bed.

“I can get you some earplugs if you would like?” Seonghwa offered.

“No it's fine,” Hongjoong replied quietly. “I need to get used to this or I'll be suffering literally forever.”

“As you wish.” Seonghwa said with a small smile, running his hand though Hongjoong's damp hair.

Down in the basement of the mansion, San sat splayed on the ground outside the forge playing with the kitten while Yunho worked on one of his projects. Dotori had begun purring loudly as she happily pounced on San giving his arm a few playful swats as he let out a barrage of giggles.

\--

One night Yeosang was in the wine cellar, looking for the perfect wine to pair with a cold and rainy night and was sifting through the vast expanse of alcohol. He lightly ran his fingers over the racks of bottles, stopping on one, pulling it out, reading the label and then putting it back with a bit of a sigh. Nothing seemed appealing but he finally settle on a rather old looking bottle and pulled it from the rack.

_Mew._

“Curious...” Yeosang muttered to himself, looking for the noise.

_Mew._

He tucked the bottle of wine under his arm and headed towards the door that lead to the garage and Yunho's forge. As he entered the garage he heard it again, but louder and closer now.

_Mew._

He approached the forge and that's when it saw what had been making all the noise: the tiny little kitten sitting in a small box with the word “Dotori” scrawled across it.

“Oh Yunho, what is this that you've been keeping from us?” Yeosang said as he crouched down and extended a had towards the kitten to give it a small pat on the head.

The kitten immediately shrank away from Yeosang's touch. For the first time since arriving at the mansion she seemed to be scared of one of the vampires. Yeosang placed the bottle of wine down on the floor and withdrew his hand, still staying crouched in place.

“You're right to be a little scared.” He said with a small sigh as he rolled back on his heels and hugged his knees.

He sat there, motionless, resting his chin on his knees just regarding the small kitten for several long minutes. The kitten cautiously sniffed the air and after a long hesitation, slowly approached the edge of the box closest to Yeosang. It propped itself up on the edge and continued sniffing as if it was trying to determine what exactly Yeosang was and if she could trust him. Yeosang slowly went to reach his hand out and the kitten quickly withdrew again.

“I get it.” Yeosang said quietly in a warm tone. “I am not like anything you've encountered before. I am old... very old, and I probably give off the air of a dangerous predator. And it's true. But you need not be afraid of me. I mean you no harm.”

He fully extended his hand and waited for the kitten to react. Within a couple minutes she approached his cold hand, giving a few hesitant sniffs. Yeosang went to turn his hand over to present his palm and the kitten lunged and bit down on his middle finger, puncturing the skin. Yeosang gave a sharp inhale, more out of surprise than pain. Yeosang carefully reached out with his other hand and scooped up the kitten, still firmly clamped onto his finger and making a small guttural noise.

“Ah, ah, ah.” Yeosang cooed in parental tone. “Now that was uncalled for.”

The small kitten looked at Yeosang as he carefully got to his feet. She started to relax in Yeosang's hands and without breaking eye contact, let go of Yeosang's finger. She sniffed the area as 2 drops of blood pooled where its incisors had broken the skin. As she went to lick the wound Yeosang quickly and carefully pulled it away.

“Ah, ah! That is not for you!” He said calmly as he brought his own finger to his mouth and licked clean the blood as the small wounds closed up. “See? All better now.” He lowered his healed hand back in front of the kitten as it sniffed the area.

The kitten gave a soft little _pbbrrt_ and nuzzled into Yeosang's hand.

“It would be best if I put you back for now.” Yeosang said as he lowered the kitten back into the box. “But I will be needing to have a little talk with Yunho about you. I will make sure one of my familiars will bring you a little food later, okay? How about some nice duck? Sound good?”

The kitten gave another happy chirp and Yeosang cracked a smile as he gave it a little pat on the head, picked up his bottle of wine and headed back out of the forge.

\--

Yunho returned back to the mansion with Jongho and Hongjoong after a long night of hunting a rogue vampire who had been causing issues in the countryside. They, well at least the humans, were visibly exhausted. Yunho was quite surprised to see Yeosang greet them at the front door.

“You three are back sooner than expected.” Yeosang stated casually. “I had thought you were supposed to return until late tomorrow night?”

“Don't wanna talk about it.” Hongjoong mumbled angrily, averting eye contact.

“ _Someone_ didn't know how to control their new vampire strength and accidentally punched through a wall and now we have a stack of property damage paperwork to fill out.” Jongho explained coldly as Hongjoong shot him an angry glare.

“As to be expected from someone so—”

“Someone so what?” Hongjoong snarled. “I dare you to say it Princey.”

Yeosang just frowned with a raised eyebrow as Jongho let out a catastrophically loud sneeze beside him causing Hongjoong to flinch slightly. Yeosang turned to Yunho, completely brushing off the other two.

“Yunho, could I have a word with you for a moment?” He asked.

“Uh, yeah, sure.” Yunho said handing his pack off to Hongjoong and following Yeosang into one of the side rooms.

Yunho grew a little uneasy as Yeosang closed the doors behind them.

“Um, is uh, something wrong?” Yunho asked nervously.

“I was down in the wine cellar earlier and heard something peculiar coming from your forge...”

“I can explain!” Yunho blurted out.

Yeosang raised his eyebrows and folded his arms in front of him.

“I... um, have been keeping a, uh, kitten ...in my forge.”

“I am aware.”

“But I don't plan on keeping her! I swear.” Yunho started to explain, talking rapidly. “I was doing some work for Mingi along the road and someone had abandoned her and she was injured and I didn't know what to do so I brought her back and San and Mingi have been helping me take care of her until she got better and—”

“And you didn't think to inform Seonghwa or myself of this?”

“Please don't tell him.” Yunho said dropping to his knees in order to beg.

“Yunho, please get up this is ridiculous.” Yeosang said with a laugh. “I'm pretty sure Seonghwa k—”

“She should be fully healed real soon!” Yunho said cutting him off. “Just give me 2 more weeks.”

“Fine.” Yeosang said with a sigh. “But _only_ 2 more weeks. I want Mingi and San to discuss with their familiars to see if any of them can take her in or else I will need to inform Seonghwa of what you three have been up to. Also just to let you know, I had one of my familiars feed her earlier. She was famished.” Yeosang gave a disapproving look.

“Mingi was supposed to be looking after her tonight.” Yunho mumbled as he got back to his feet and dusted himself off.

“Sometimes vampires do not remember that other creatures need to feed more regularly than they do. Maybe you should remind him of that.”

“I... I will talk to him.” Yunho said in a defeated tone as Yeosang opened up the doors to the room.

“Glad this is all taken care of.” Yeosang said nonchalantly as he turned to leave. “You know what you need to do and what the repercussions are. I guess you could say you _owe_ me.”

“Kang Yeosang, nephew to, uh, _one of_ the former Joseon emperors and 13th in line to the throne, are you _really_ trying to blackmail me?” Yunho said in an overly assertive tone.

Yeosang turned back around, blinking in confusion, not expecting that sort of attitude from Yunho.

“9th actually, but that's not—”

“Fine. I'll play but I'm not going to like it. And I swear if you tell Seonghwa...” Yunho gave an 'I'm watching you' hand motion between the two of them and left the room.

Yeosang stood there in shock, mouth slightly agape as he slowly pieced together just how exactly he had inadvertently blackmailed Yunho into keeping the kitten a secret from Seonghwa.

“Yunho, wait, that's not what I—oh never mind.” He sighed with a roll of his eyes. “Whatever this could be an interesting turn of events.”

\--

“MINGI!” Yunho yelled while walking with a determined pace towards Mingi's security room. “Mingi!”

He wrenched open the door to find the room empty, cursing under his breath.

“MINGI!!!” He called again as he stalked back down the halls.

“What ever is all the commotion about?” Seonghwa's voice said in a tired tone from behind him.

Yunho stopped in his tracks and whipped around to face a rather tired looking Seonghwa. Yunho's face immediately flushed red in a combination of embarrassment and nervousness. “Nothing. I, uh, I just really need to find Mingi.”

“And yelling his name while loudly stomping around the house is how you decided to go about doing so?” Seonghwa said with a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry,” Yunho apologized sheepishly.

“He's with Wooyung and San right now. You'll find them in Wooyoung's room.”

“Ah, right, thank you!” Yunho blurted out as he sprinted towards Wooyoung's room, again cursing under his breath.

He threw open the door and barged into Wooyoung's room without even knocking, interrupting quite the scene. But he paid no mind to all that was going on as he extracted Mingi from the pile of bodies on the bed, much to San's vocal displeasure. Yunho quickly dragged him over to the far corner of the room while Wooyoung and San quietly giggled.

“What are you so worked up about?” Mingi asked lazily as he put on a robe.

“You were supposed to feed Dotori while I was gone. It was your turn!” Yunho angrily whispered.

“Yeah and I'll get to it.” Mingi replied in a slightly annoyed tone.

“You were supposed to feed her hours ago! She is very small and it has been forever to her. She was starving. You could have at least asked one of your familiars to take care of things while I was gone.”

“Shit... I guess I lost track of time, I'm real sorry.” Mingi averted eye contact.

“Well now Yeosang knows.” Yunho replied in an agitated tone, entirely too loudly.

“Shit.” Mingi cursed again.

“Yeosang knows what?” Wooyoung called from the bed.

“Nothing!” Mingi and Yunho both replied in unison.

“You guys have been acting weird lately.” Wooyoung quipped. “What are you hiding. I heard you say feed, do you have a secret familiar or something like Seonghwa?”

“Wooyoungie, how about another round.” San said playfully as he rolled over on top of Wooyoung, giving a deathly glare behind him at Yunho and Mingi.

“Oh, okay.” Wooyoung said with a smirk, all too easily distracted.

Yunho quickly dragged Mingi out of the room while San gave them a sort of 'get out of here' nod in their direction. They travelled down to the forge to see that she was fast asleep having been well fed by Yeosang's familiar. They anxiously sat around discussion options until San was able to join them about an hour later and they decided what was to be done with Dotori.

“I have a familiar who could take her.” San said quietly. “She has a daughter around the age of 12 who just recently lost their family pet. She was absolutely devastated but I know they would take good care of little Dotori.”

“It's probably for the best then.” Yunho said sadly.

“I guess we better let Yeosang know.” Mingi added in.

“I guess.” San sighed. “Ugh so how long do we have?”

“2 weeks.” Yunho replied.

“I'll call my familiar tomorrow. Let her know. Then we can tell Yeosang before he gossips to Seonghwa.”

And so San set up the adoption of the kitten to his familiar with Yeosang's approval. Now the three of them were sadly counting down the days before they would have to give up their little kitten while still trying to keep it a secret from the rest of the house to prevent themselves from getting in anymore trouble.


	3. Chapter 3

It was late in the evening and Jongho had been working on drafting up some reports in hopes of at least partially clearing out his current backlog. He leaned back in his computer chair and gave a long exasperated groan as he stretched his arms above his head. His head was already swimming from all of the figures and info he was trying to paraphrase into a short, concise manner so he figured a couple hours of video games with Yunho, Wooyoung, San, and Mingi would be a nice break and help him gather his thoughts for later.

Heading out of his room he wandered down the hall trying to find the others. Yunho, San and Mingi's bedrooms were all oddly empty so he headed down to Wooyoung's. Within a second of knocking on the door he heard a loud guttural groan come from deep inside the room and he immediately swerved away and kept walking.

“Maybe it would be best to _not_ bother Wooyoung tonight.” He muttered to himself as he headed downstairs.

Jongho wandered the house for close to 15 minutes with no sign of the other three. He started to wonder if there had been a sanction issued and he didn't realize or something. He had been wearing his noise-cancelling headphones so pretty much anything could have been happening in the mansion and he would have been oblivious. He sent Yunho a quick text to their group chat. No response.

[Seen by Jeong Yunho @ 02:34am]

“Dammit Yunho.” Jongho cursed knowing full well that he had been left on read. “Where the hell are you hiding?”

He continued searching room by room until he managed to spot Eden at the end of the hall.

“Hey! Hyung!” Jongho called loudly as he jogged up to him.

For a vampire, Eden looked particularly exhausted on this night. When he saw Jongho he made a slight hand motion as if to say 'not so loud.' Jongho noticed his weary disposition and decided to tread lightly around him.

“Have, uh, you seen Yunho anywhere?” He asked quietly. “I can't seem to find him... or anyone...”

“Did you check the forge?” Eden answered apathetically.

“Of course I—” Jongho quickly realized that he had forgotten to search the most likely place. “...am an idiot. Sorry.”

Eden just sighed and gave him a pat on the shoulder as he went to carry on his way.

“Hey, uh, are you doing alright?” Jongho quickly interjected.

Eden just gave a heavy sigh and turned back around to face him.

“You're looking a little... rough? When was the last time you fed?”

“What day is it?” Eden mumbled.

“The 18th.”

“Shit.” Eden cursed while rubbing his forehead and proceeding to wearily drag his hand down the side of his face indicating that it had in fact been entirely too long since he last fed. “I've just... had a lot of things on my mind recently.”

“Well, take care of yourself, okay?” Jongho replied as Eden turned and headed off in the direction of the feeding room with a dismissive wave.

After that Jongho headed straight down to the forge in hopes the others would be there.

Meanwhile down in the forge not a whole lot of work was actually being done. Yunho had attempted to work on altering some of the blueprints for some new tech he was developing but of course all of his attention was soon directed towards Dotori. Of course Mingi and San were down there as well. The three of them had become nearly inseparable since Dotori had arrived.

Dotori was playfully hopping along the top of one of Yunho's work benches as Mingi crouched down in front of it, wiggling his fingers along the edge to play with her. She would see his fingers appear over the edge and quickly flatten down, eyeing the wiggling digits before wiggling herself and attempting to pounce. Occasionally Mingi would even let her catch a finger or two and she would give a couple playful bites before jumping back and waiting for him to make another move.

San sat propped up on a work table across the room watching intently as they played, occasionally letting out a series of high-pitched cackles. On one such occasion Dotori had gotten overly confident and instead of going after Mingi's fingers, had pounced right on top of his head and was swatting at his nose. In retaliation Mingi unleashed his fangs, brandishing them at her, startling her and causing her to tumble backwards across the bench. She wasn't afraid of him in the slightest though and he let out a deep laugh as his fangs retracted again.

Yunho sat happily watching them dote on the small kitten. He still had a pencil in his hand and was mindlessly doodling on the prints he had laid out in front of him, completely distracted from his actual work.

San's posture suddenly changed and he straightened up. “Jongho's coming.”

They all scurried to hide all evidence of the kitten. Yunho hid her food and makeshift toys, San quickly kicked the little box bed they had made her underneath the table he had been sitting on and Mingi, panicking the most, picked up small Dotori and quickly shoved her under his oversized sweater. They all quickly tried to 'look normal' as Jongho rounded the corner into the line of site of the forge.

“So uh, yeah, and uh, that's how the UV sword could actually do permanent deep sub-dermal damage to a weaker vampire when used properly.” Yunho loudly started to fake explain to San while vaguely pointing at some schematics.

“What the fuck?” San hissed under his breath while giving Yunho a concerned look. The specific nature of the topic Yunho had decided to use as his cover at that moment was fairly off-colour for him, especially since San had had one too many close run-ins with the sun over the past couple of months.

“Sorry, it's the first thing that popped into my head.” Yunho whispered back, his face having flushed red in embarrassment.

“Hey guys, what are y'all up to?” Jongho asked cheerfully as he walked into the forge.

“Nothing!” Yunho blurted out. “I mean, um, nothing... all that exciting?”

“Yeah he was just explaining the various ways I could nearly get killed again _apparently_.” San remarked in slightly wounded tone.

“Well I decided to take a break fro—”

“GAAHHH!” Mingi suddenly blurted out, having doubled over in pain while leaning against a nearby table.

“Mingi are you alright?!” Jongho exclaimed as he lunged into action to provide any sort of help but Mingi quickly pushed him back.

“It's fine, it's fINE! Ah ha HA HA.” Mingi stressed. “Just some indiGEStion.”

Both Yunho and San were watching wide-eyed at the confusing display that was occurring in front of them.

“But... vampires don't eat?” Jongho's eyes narrowed at Mingi.

“Yeah well it was some bad blood then, okay?” Mingi snapped back.

“Anyways I was wondering if any of y'all would be interested in a round of Mario Kart ...or maybe seven? I could really use a break.”

“Yeah sure!” Yunho piped up. “Go set up the system and we will be up in a few minutes.”

“Alright cool!” Before Jongho could leave he let out a horrendously loud sneeze and Mingi physically winced. Jongho rubbed his eyes and gave himself a bit of a shake. “Wow, excuse me.” He said somewhat bewildered at himself. “I'll see you upstairs in a bit.”

He turned to leave and they could hear him sneeze a couple more times before the far door to the garage had closed and he was gone.

“Mingi are you actually okay?!” San quickly leaped down from the work table and ran over to him.

Mingi sheepishly pulled up his sweater to reveal a very angry Dotori and a series of deep scratch marks across his abdomen that were slowly healing already.

“She really did not like being under there.” Mingi said with a sigh as he bent down and placed her back in her bed. She hissed and spat at him and gave a few playful swats at his hands before settling down and curling up on her bed.

“Mingi, some days I wonder about that brain of yours.” San said with a sigh and a shake of his head.

“We shouldn't keep Jongho waiting.” Yunho quickly ushered them out of the forge, locked up and they all headed upstairs to join Jongho in some video games.

As they were playing, Jongho's condition started to get exponentially worse. His eyes had become severely red and watery and he could no longer control his snuffling.

“Ugh, I'm sorry guys I must be coming down with something.” He croaked out.

Unbeknownst to the others (at least unbeknownst to the other besides Yunho who knew all too well but had apparently decided to forget), Jongho had a horrible cat allergy and they were all covered to some extent in kitten fur.

“I'm going to have to call it a night early.” Jongho said with a loud snuffle. “I need to go get some tea or something.”

“Do you want some blood or anything?” Mingi asked.

“Can your blood cure the common cold?” Jongho quipped.

“I... uh...” Mingi honestly did not know.

“No, it cannot.” San answered for him. “I'm sorry Jongie. I hope you start feeling better soon!”

Jongho gave a bit of an apathetic wave and headed back to his room while the others continued to play for a couple more rounds.

\--

Jongho ended up staying holed up in his bedroom for several days suffering from the severe side effects of his cat allergy. It wasn't until the third night when no one had seen him that Seonghwa became concerned enough to take things into his own hands.

Seonghwa lightly knocked on Jongho's bedroom door. “Jongho? It's Seonghwa, may I enter?”

Jeongho grumbled a “Yeah” from the other side.

Seonghwa cautiously entered carrying a small bag of supplies and set them down on the floor in front of Jongho's bed where he was sitting like a gremlin, sipping some tea and wrapped with the duvet over his head.

“Jongho the others were concerned as you appeared to be coming down with something the other night and now I am concerned as well as it has been days since we last saw you. Would you permit me to give you a quick checkup?”

Jongho nodded while clinging to the hot cup of tea in his hands. Seonghwa carefully rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and sat down on the bed beside him.

“I'm going to check your temperature.” Seonghwa said in a calm tone while taking the tea out of Jongho's hands and placing it on the nightstand. “I apologize if my hands are a little cold.”

Seonghwa took Jongho's wrist in one hand and placed his other hand on Jongho's forehead. He was right in that his touch felt nearly ice cold and Jongho gave a bit of a impulsive shudder. Seonghwa proceeded to close his eyes as he focused on listening to Jongho's body.

“Hmm that's interesting.” He quietly muttered to himself as he removed his hand from Jongho's forehead.

“What? What is it!?” Jongho asked nervously.

“Everything sounds mostly normal other than some slight agitation in your lungs and you don't actually appear to have any sort of fever other than your body temperature being mildly elevated due to cocooning yourself in blankets.”

Seonghwa pushed the sleeve of Jongho's shirt up to expose his forearm revealing a somewhat nasty looking red rash.

“Now this is of some concern.” Seonghwa's said with a raised eyebrow. “I'm going to need you to remove your shirt.”

Jongho hesitantly complied only to reveal the angry rash was all over his chest and back.

“Has this not been bothering you?” Seonghwa asked somewhat concerned.

“I mean, it's been really itchy but I'm fine.” Jongho mumbled.

Seonghwa let out a long sigh. “Well, it appears you are having a severe allergic reaction to something. Do you have any known allergies?”

Jongho shook his head. “Only cats.”

Seonghwa clicked his tongue with mild annoyance. “Wait right here. I will be back momentarily.”

Seonghwa returned about 15 minutes later with a small vial of clear liquid and pulled a small supply of needles from his bag. He informed Jongho that he will temporarily need daily allergy shots until his condition improves. Jongho reluctantly looked at the needles and agreed to let Seonghwa administer the shot just so that he could actually start to be a functioning member of society again instead of a snuffly blanket gremlin.

“You should only have to keep this up for a couple weeks, at least until the source of your allergy has been removed.” Seonghwa instructed casually. “In the meantime I will have a salve prepared for your rash to at least alleviate those bothersome symptoms in the short term. I would also suggest having all your clothing and bedding freshly washed.”

“Thank you.” Jongho replied quietly.

“You are more than welcome.” Seonghwa said with a smile. “Please keep me updated on your condition and I will check back tomorrow.”

Jongho gave a happy nod as Seonghwa collected his things and left.

***

Yunho had been sitting in the living room on his laptop when he was joined by Seonghwa who sat not too far from him to read. Yeosang and Wooyoung joined not too long after. Yeosang made eye contact with Yunho as he entered the room and he and Wooyoung curled up on the sofa across from him. Yunho looked nervously between Yeosang and Seonghwa, momentarily stopping his work, his palms becoming increasingly sweaty out of nerves.

“Say, Seonghwa...” Yeosang started to say. Yunho's eyes went wide in fear and his heart skipped a beat. “When was the last time you fed, your colour is looking a little off?”

Yunho gave a small sigh of relief.

“A day or so but you're right, I should probably feed.” Seonghwa noted as he went to get up.

“No, no, stay where you are.” Yeosang instructed with a wave of his hand. “Wooyoungie, are you hungry as well?”

“Mmhmm.” Wooyoung replied with a nod.

“Yunho, would you be a dear and fetch us something to drink?” Yeosang said coolly. “O+ for Seonghwa and myself, B- for Wooyoung here.”

 _He's testing me. I know it. He's actually testing me knowing Seonghwa is right there. How dare—_ Yunho angrily thought as he gave a silent glare towards Yeosang.

“Yeah, sure, whatever you'd like.” Yunho replied with a somewhat fake smile.

“Yunho, that isn't necessary.” Seonghwa interjected with a bit of a laugh.

“No, no it's fine. I'd be more than happy to. Just wait here and I will be right back.”

“Thank you, you are too kind.” Seonghwa said with a warm smile.

Yunho put down his laptop and got up from his comfy chair. As he passed Yeosang he gave another deadly glare at him and Yeosang just let out a small laugh which he hid behind the back of his hand.

“You really are too kind, Yunho.” He sarcastically called after him.

***

The sun had just set and everyone in the mansion was slowly rising for the evening. Yunho walked down to his forge with some food and water for Dotori but was quite surprised to find her bed empty when he arrived. He placed the food and water on the floor and did a quick search around the forge; under tables, in boxes of parts, on shelves... but she was nowhere to be found.

“Dotori?” Yunho called sadly to no response.

Yunho started to panic a little not knowing where she could be.

“Dotori!” He called again a little louder, once again to no response. “Dammit.” He cursed as he headed out of the forge to go and find San thinking maybe he had already taken the kitten out to play or something.

Unfortunately when he reached San's room he found it vacant of the small kitten, San still deep asleep.

“Sannie.” Yunho called while giving San's hair a gentle ruffle in an attempt to wake him.

San groaned and retreated underneath the heavy duvet, knocking half a dozen plushies that littered his bed onto the floor.

“San, please.” Yunho said with a hint of annoyance as he patted the duvet covering San.

“Mmmmwhat is it.” San mumbled from under the covers. “You dare wake me from my slumber? It better be important.”

“Dotori is missing.”

San whipped the duvet off of himself and sat bolt upright. “What?!”

“She's missing! I just went down to the forge and she's gone! I thought she might have been up here with you but...”

“Oh fuck.” San cursed.

San quickly got dressed and they headed to Mingi's room only to be greeted with a much crankier response.

“It might have been Yeosang or one of his familiars.” Mingi said groggily while being interrogated but the other two, his bedhead causing his hair to stick up at ridiculous angles. “Did you check with them?”

“But if we let on that the kitten is missing Yeosang will for sure tell Seongwha.” San countered.

“I can ask his familiar though...” Yunho offered. “I'll just send a quick text asking if they've been the one feeding Dotori recently, completely innocent from any sort of suspicion, see if they bite.”

No sooner than he had sent the text Yunho had already received a response informing him that they had been on vacation and weren't scheduled to arrive back until next week.

“So she escaped?” Mingi concluded.

“She must have gotten out through one of the service vents.” Yunho said. “Dammit I knew I should have childproofed those...”

“Well now we need to find her, and fast.” San interjected.

“Eden just got back the other night, maybe he cou—”

“No, absolutely not.” San said flatly cutting off Yunho.

“But he's the best hunter out of all of us.”

“What about Jongho?”

“He's horribly allergic to cats, if he were to catch her he'd break out in a horrible rash immediately.”

Mingi was tiredly watching San and Yunho banter back and forth in front of him. Eventually he completely removed him from the conversation and flopped back down in bed.

“Well we can't ask Yeosang.” San continued. “Wooyung I doubt would be very helpful, he's still a baby.”

“What about Hongjoong? I mean, I know he's still really new at the whole vampire thing but he's the second best hunter after Eden... if he couldn't find Dotori I doubt anyone else will.”

“But can we trust him not to tell Seonghwa? The way they're always together—”

“He wouldn't snitch on us if we lay things out in a straightforward manner. Besides we have already discussed all this with Yeosang and he gave his approval. It's fine. We can trust him.”

“Alright then Hongjoong it is. Mingi, what do you think?” There was no response from Mingi. “Mingi?”

San noticed he was already fast asleep and didn't hesitate to whip a pillow at his head to wake him back up.

“What the hell?!” Mingi barked after getting clocked right in the face.

“Sometimes I swear Mingi...” San sighed. “We're going to go get Hongjoong to help. Get yourself dressed, head down to the security room to get us some of those earpieces.” He said tapping his ear as he spoke. “Meet in the security room in 20 minutes.”

With that, Yunho and San headed out to find Hongjoong while Mingi lazily dragged himself out of bed.

They approached the door to Hongjoong's room when San suddenly stopped dead in his tracks causing Yunho to nearly bump into his back.

“Shit.” San hissed.

“What is it?”

“Seonghwa's in there.” San whispered. “Shit and he probably already knows we are out here because of this.” He said giving Yunho's chest a light tap with his knuckle over his heart. “Oh well, might as well go all in then.”

He confidently walked up to the door and flung it wide open without even knocking, Yunho cautiously followed behind. Hongjoong had been still asleep before they barged in but Seonghwa was already well awake.

“Good morning!” San said in a fake chipper tone.

“What brings you here so early in the evening?” Seonghwa asked as Hongjoong gave a tired stretch beside him, heavily blinking to get his vision back into focus.

“We need Hongjoong. There's been a sanction issued.” San lied. “Right, Yunho? Tell them.” San gave Yunho a hard jab in the ribs with his elbow.

“Uh yeah! He's right! A sanction just came in and it's rather urgent so, uh, Hongjoong I need you to come down to the security room with us for a briefing.”

Seonghwa looked between them with a deadpan expression and an air of suspicion.

“A sanction out against me or for me to take out on someone else?” Hongjoong asked groggily while rolling onto his back.

“Against you/for someone else!” San and Yunho spoke at the same time.

“It's, uh, it's complicated.” Yunho interjected.

Hongjoong inhaled deeply and reluctantly slid out of the bed and shuffled towards them while lazily running his hands through his hair.

“Take care, my love.” Seonghwa called from the bed.

Had Hongjoong the capacity to blush, his cheeks would have burned a deep vermilion in that moment.

“Alright let's go.” He frantically motioned for them to leave the room and they all headed down to the security room to meet up with Mingi.

\--

To say that Hongjoong was not impressed when he learned there was no sanction would have been an extreme understatement.

“Sorry for lying...” San said quietly. “But we had to.”

“I honestly can't believe you, all of you, right now.” Hongjoong replied coldly with a blank stare.

“Yeah sorry we just didn't want Seonghwa getting suspicious.” Yunho said sheepishly. “But we really do need your help.”

Yunho talked a mile a minute explaining the whole situation and after he is done Hongjoong lets out a long, disappointed sigh. But he reluctantly agrees to help them find the small kitten.

“So what exactly does this kitten look like?” He asked.

"Well, it's like a regular cat, but you-sized." San quipped.

Hongjoong punched him hard in the arm and he gave out a small squeak in pain. “I deserved that.” He muttered.

“It's about 4 lbs and a brown tabby.” Yunho explained. “She has a big scar on her back leg and goes by the name Dotori.”

“Alright, lets get to work and hope that Seonghwa doesn't catch on before we're done.” Hongjoong said clapping his hands together to get down to business.

They all split up to take different wings of the house.

As expected Hongjoong was the quickest to track the kitten down in the library but the encounter was definitely not what _he_ had expected.

Using his increased hearing abilities he was able to pinpoint what room the kitten was in but he also found that if he focused too hard on trying to isolate the sound it made his head spin. He had to stop before entering the room as he composed himself again, giving his head a bit of a shake.

He opened the doors to the library and quickly closed them behind him. His eyes darted around the room trying to find where the kitten was hiding. It wasn't long before he spotted it walking precariously along the top shelf of one of the bookcases on the second level.

“There you are.” Hongjoong said to himself with a bit of a sinister smile. “But, how on earth did you manage to get way up there?”

“I've spotted her.” Hongjoong pressed on his earpiece to let the others know.

He hurriedly headed up the spiral stairs leading to the second level that formed a mezzanine around the interior of the room. Grabbing one of the book ladders, he slid it over as far as possible to where the kitten was. Dotori gave a loud mew as she watched him struggle to reach her. Hongjoong scaled up the ladder as quickly as possible. He reached out to try to grab the kitten but she was just outside of his reach. He cursed his small stature under his breath.

“Come here Dotori!” He said in a sickingly sweet tone, trying to coax the kitten towards him, holding his hand out towards the kitten and wiggling his fingers. “Come here!”

The kitten wobbly navigated the shelf towards him but stumbled slightly while trying to edge around a large, intricate and ancient-looking vase that had been placed square in the middle of the shelf. The kitten momentarily lost its footing and Hongjoong lunged towards it just as it was about to fall, inadvertently knocking the large vase with it.

Luckily Hongjoong caught the kitten just in time and pulled it in close to his chest. The vase teetered on the edge of the shelf and Hongjoong held his breath praying it would stay in place. Luck was no longer on his side as it teetered over the edge. He tried to catch the vase but he couldn't control his strength and ended up knocking it further out of reach. Grasping onto the handle at the last second with a couple fingers, the unexpected weight of the falling vase ended up throwing him even more off balance. The vase left his grasp and fell to the floor below, smashing into hundreds of pieces. It was also too late for Hongjoong to recover his balance as he lost his footing on the ladder.

Time seemed to slow as he fell backwards and he drew the kitten in as close to his body as he could to protect it.

He hit the ground floor. Hard.

“What was that noise?” Mingi spoke over the earpiece having heard the shattering vase 3 seconds earlier followed by the loud thud of Hongjoong hitting the hardwood.

“Hongjoong? Was that you? It sounded like it came from the library.” San replied.

“Hongjoong?” Mingi repeated.

There was no answer from Hongjoong.

“San, can you go check it out. The library is closest to you.” Yunho asked.

“On it.” San replied.

Hongjoong just lay there on the floor, staring at the ceiling. Dotori wriggled out of his tight hold and quickly scampered away. The room around him was blurring in and out of focus, his body was screaming at him but he couldn't move. He knew very well that if he were human that fall could have and probably would have easily killed him with how hard his head hit the floor. He must have fallen a good 6 m from the top of the bookshelf. Hongjoong was desperately trying to regain his bearings but his head was swimming and his body was rejecting any notion of movement.

A couple minutes later San rushed into the library, leaving the door wide open and unknowingly letting the kitten free yet again. He spotted Hongjoong lying motionless on his back on the floor.

“Hongjoong!” He called as he rushed over to him. “Are you alri—” He suddenly noticed the shattered vase and let out a high-pitched cry, completely abandoning Hongjoong and shuffling over to the broken remnants of the vase.

“Oh no, no, no!” San cried, picking up and handling the pieces. He looked up at the upper shelf where it had previously lived and then back down at the pieces. “This was one of Seonghwa's prized possessions! He is going to absolutely murder us.”

Hongjoong let out a long groan and continued to lay there breathless while San panicked around him. San wasn't even concerned with Hongjoong's condition knowing he would heal from it soon enough.

“What the hell happened?!” San questioned Hongjoong but quickly realized he wasn't going to get an immediate response. “Fuck this is so not good.”

San paced in circles a few times before coming up with a plan for himself.

“Fuck. I need to fix this!” San yelled as he rushed over to a nearby desk and fumbled around until he found a small tube of super glue. “This could work. Ugh! It's the only option we've got. I gotta try.”

Hongjoong slowly regained control over his body and started to pick himself up off the floor, his head was pounding and his vision was still giving him issues.

“I think... I nearly cracked my skull open?” Hongjoong groaned while sitting up and rubbing the back of his head with a horribly pained expression on his face.

“That's nice, Hongie, but we have bigger issues right now.” San quipped while he sat cross-legged on the floor nearby hunched over frantically gluing (the wrong) pieces of the vase back together.

“Thank you for you concern.” Hongjoong muttered angrily.

“Listen, it takes a lot more than a fall to break vampire bones.” San explained while distracted. “You were probably just severely concussed. Give it 15-20 minutes. You'll be fine.”

“San?” Yunho spoke over the earpieces. “San what happened?”

“Hongjoong is fine.” San sighed. “But Seonghwa's Goryeo era vase isn't. Shattered into a billion pieces.”

“Fuck.” Mingi cursed.

“Hongjoong, you really okay?” Yunho asked.

“Yeah... thanks for being the only one to actually care about my well-being. Knew I could count on you.” Hongjoong replied sarcastically. “Just need a minute to also piece myself together. ...Oh and Dotori escaped again.”

“Fuck!” Mingi repeated.

While the others continued the search, San continued frantically trying to rebuilt the vase and Hongjoong tried to stop the room from spinning merely from standing up.

Not too long after the incident in the library there was a knock on the door. It was Yeosang who had come to inform them that Seonghwa had requested all of them to meet him in the living room over a rather serious matter. Both Hongjoong and San shared a worrisome glance between them.


	4. Chapter 4

There was a light knock on the door to Seonghwa's bedroom and Eden walked in carrying something wriggling in his arms, squirming to get free from his grasp.

“What is this?” Seonghwa said in a gentle voice as Eden approached with the tiny kitten.

“It appears to be the small kitten that Yunho, San and Mingi have been hiding for the past 3 weeks.” Eden said as he passed off the tiny kitten to Seonghwa who already had his hands out waiting to accept the small baby. “I found it in my closet, playing with the straps on one of my tactical vests. No idea how it managed to get in there.”

“Ah so you have been aware all this time as well.” Seonghwa replied while partially preoccupied as he placed the small kitten on his lap and began gently stroking its head with two of his fingers.

“I mean how could anyone not know?” Eden scoffed. “That thing makes so much noise and they weren't very inconspicuous in where they were hiding it. Every time I came or went from the garage, there the little fur ball was, meowing at me from Yunho's forge.”

Seonghwa was only half listening to what he was saying as he gently scratched the kitten's chin, smiling contently to himself.

“I'm honestly surprised you didn't confront any of them earlier.” Eden grumbled. “I know how you feel about animals in the mansion—”

“It wasn't my place. I trusted them to tell me when they were ready. Apparently they still aren't.”

“Well, I'll be going. There's work to actually be done. Unlike what the rest of this household tends to think.” Eden said with a dismissive wave. “Do with it as you will.” He motioned to the kitten and disappeared from the room.

“Well my little friend, it looks like the secret is out.” Seonghwa cooed as the kitten purred loudly and snuggled tightly against him.

Seonghwa contemplated for a moment as to what the next step forward should be.

“Unfortunately you won't be able to stay here much longer, as much as you might like it here.” He said gently to the small kitten. “We will find a much more suitable home for you.”

Seongwha got up from his bed carrying the small kitten and headed out of the room, walking down the hall to Yeosang's room.

“Yeosang?” He called from behind the closed door. “I have a favour to ask of you if you don't mind.”

“Yes?” A muffled voice called from the other side.

“Please inform the other household members that I wish to meet with all of them over a rather serious matter. I will be downstairs in the living room waiting.”

By the time Yeosang had opened the door, Seonghwa had already left.

“Ah, it seems like he has finally decided to put an end to things.” Yeosang muttered to himself as he drew his oversized cardigan around him tighter and headed out to inform the others.

\--

Seonhwa sat quietly in the living room, Dotori had fallen fast asleep on his lap as he waited for the other household members to arrive one by one. As they slowly filed in there were a series of mixed reactions. Jongho was the first to arrive and when he laid eyes on the tiny kitten he instinctively moved as far away from Seonghwa as possible.

“Ah, I sincerely apologize Jongho.” Seonghwa said with a hint of regret. “I know being in such close proximity does not help your condition much but I promise to make it fast.”

Jongho just gave a small nod and looked fondly at the little kitten from a distance.

Wooyoung was the next to arrive and let out an exited yell thinking they were finally going to be allowed pets in the mansion until Seonghwa informed him that it would not be so and to take a seat.

Yunho followed soon after Wooyoung and his heart immediately skipped a beat when he noticed Dotori. He started panicking more knowing that Seonghwa probably just sensed him panic. He shuffled as quickly as he naturally could to the chair beside Jongho, as far from Seonghwa as possible. His face and ears had already flushed a brilliant red colour and he was not hiding his nerves well in the slightest.

San and Hongjoong stumbled in and were so preoccupied by Hongjoong's less than optimal condition that they weren't fully aware of the situation. San was slowly trying to guide Hongjoong to one of the sofas as he shuffled along beside him.

“What in the world happened to you Hongjoong?” Seonghwa asked in an extremely concerned tone.

“S'nothing.” Hongjoong groaned.

“He's just slightly concussed. He'll be fine in a—” San noticed Dotori and his voice went all squeaky. “MINUTE. He's fine. Took a bad spill while trying to, uh, grab something for me.”

“I thought you were supposed to be out on a sanction?” Seonghwa asked, furrowing his brow.

“Yeah... so did I.” Hongjoong sighed.

At that moment Mingi arrived followed by Yeosang and immediately Mingi let out a loud “oh fuck” as he saw Seonghwa with Dotori. Seonghwa just motioned for the two of them sit.

“Thank you for all joining me here. I promise I won't take long, especially for Jongho's sake.” Seonghwa began. “Now, you probably notice the tiny guest who is currently asleep on my lap. Anyone know anything about this?”

“I thought you had a no pets rule in the mansion?” Wooyoung mumbled.

“And you would be right.” Seonghwa gave a less than sincere smile towards Wooyoung. “Now I ask again, would anyone in this room know why I am currently holding a kitten?”

Seonghwa's eyes scanned the room, the majority of the coven avoiding eye contact but one look and Yunho immediately broke under the pressure.

“It was me!” Yunho blurted out, sliding out of his chair and onto his knees on the floor. “I'm sorry. I know I broke the rules but when I found her she was injured and needed my help!”

“A very noble gesture but I just wish that you had informed me.” Seonghwa said in a motherly tone. “It is truly disappointing that instead you chose to hide her from the rest of the coven. This coven, no, this household is built on trust and while you believed what you were doing was the best course of action, you still broke that trust and even put others' health risk.”

Seonghwa paused for a brief moment to take a look over at Jongho who gave a bit of a snuffle but seemed to have otherwise completely dissociated.

“Unfortunately, due to the current situation, the punishment will need to be quite severe.” Seonghwa said coldly.

“Wait stop!” San interrupted, jumping to his feet. “It's wasn't just Yunho, it was me and Mingi as well! We helped him.”

Mingi gave San a shocked look as if he had just completely just thrown him under the bus. “Hey it was the two of YOU who brought it to ME!” He retorted.

San ran up to Seonghwa and dropped to his knees in front of him.

“Seonghwa please don't remove Yunho from the house. I beg of you. He is... he... he's very special to me.” San pleaded, tears already welling in his eyes.

Yunho's face burned bright red at San's sudden confession.

“San, whatever are you talking about?” Seonghwa scoffed. “I was merely going to have Yunho deep clean the mansion top to bottom once the kitten leaves. I would never excommunicate one of your familiars over something so petty, let alone one so much like family.”

San completely crumpled to the floor in embarrassment and Yunho rushed over to comfort him. San turned to Yunho and buried his face in his chest to prevent the others from seeing him cry.

“I apologize for scaring you, San.” Seonghwa said calmly, giving his back a light rub as Yunho helped pull him to his feet and back over his chair. San clung to him like a scared koala.

“Now, back to the topic at hand.” Seonghwa continued. “Yunho, you probably understand why you will be given the punishment as such, correct? Poor Jongho has been suffering for the last couple of weeks due to the introduction of the kitten to the mansion. In order for his full recovery the mansion will need to be spotless.”

Yunho solemnly nodded as he was simultaneously babying San in his arms.

“Jongho, you may leave if you wish. I do not want to worsen your condition by keeping you here any longer than necessary.”

Jongho got up from his chair and approached Yunho.

“Sorry Jongie.” Yunho said quietly.

“You _knew_ I was severely allergic to cats you idiot!” Jongho scolded him, giving him a hard punch on the arm.

Yunho winced in pain and let out a small _ahh!_

“I deserved that.” Yunho mumbled.

Jongho gave a hard punch to San as well and he gave a startled squeak. “That's for being an accomplice.” Jongho said as he rubbed his knuckles, probably having just done as much damage to his hand as he had done to San's arm.

Jongho passed Seonghwa and wiggled a finger at the small kitten who had now woken from its sleep after San's dramatic display.

“I forgive you, but only because you are adorable.” He said quietly to the kitten.

As he left the room he cocked a fist at Mingi but withheld punching him as Mingi flinched away.

“You get a free pass this time.” Jongho mumbled. “Only because you saved my life.”

With that Jongho exited the room.

“Wooyoung, you may leave as well.” Seonghwa instructed.

“Alright cool.” Wooyoung said without hesitation as he got up from his chair.

“Hey Jongho!” He called from the hall. “How about a round of Smash!”

“Now as for the rest of you...” Seonghwa continued. “Yunho was not the only one responsible. You all were complicit to some extent as well.”

Hongjoong raised his hand as if he were in class. “I was only just dragged into this an hour ago in order to put an end to the chaos. I wish to be excused.”

“I object!” Mingi shouted, standing to his feet. “He is fucking the judge which is a major conflict of interest!”

“Sit down.” Yeosang said with a roll of his eyes, placing his hand on Mingi's shoulder and forcing him back into his chair. “We're _all_ fucking the judge.”

Seonghwa completely ignored them.

“Hongjoong, as that is indeed true and you are suffering from what appears to be a fairly severe concussion I will grant your request. Please head upstairs and I will join you once we are finished here.”

Hongjoong nodded and left, stumbling slightly as he reached the door as the room had started spinning slighty again. He tried to play it off as intentional only making it all the more obvious before he disappeared around the corner.

“Now, the _rest_ of you. Yunho, I know that you have been hiding the kitten for some time now as it heals and that is truly kind of you but you have been slacking on your duties as a hunter because of it while Hongjoong, Jongho and Eden depend on you.”

Yunho gave a bit of a frown knowing he was right.

“Mingi, I know you let Yunho hide the kitten in your security room at first. But must I remind you that that is a _security_ room and not a play room?”

Mingi awkwardly cleared his throat and looked away.

“San, I know you have been dutifully helping the other two care for the kitten. I also know that you have been sneaking the kitten out from the forge during the day and taking it back to your room to snuggle with before bringing it back to the forge early each evening in hopes no one would notice. Well did it not escape this evening due to your carelessness?”

San buried himself deeper into Yunho's sweater.

“That was you?!” Yunho said looking down at San somewhat in shock.

“Yeosang, you have known for weeks as to what they were doing and yet did not bother to tell me. I thought we had a stronger trust after all these years together. Am I wrong?”

Yeosang just briefly raised his eyebrows but said nothing while crossing his arms.

“So you knew all along!?” San exclaimed as he perked up having finally pieced everything together.

“I knew the minute Yunho carried it over the threshold.” Seonghwa replied.

“And Yeosang, you also knew that he knew?!”

Yeosang smugly nodded.

“Wait, so you blackmailed me despite Seonghwa already knowing?” Yunho gasped.

“You completely misunderstood what I was trying to say to you that day. But since I was bored, it seemed like it would be funny.” Yeosang replied coolly.

“Yeosang, what have we discussed about your blackmail tendencies... this isn't the Joseon era anymore.” Seonghwa gently scolded him.

“I know, I know...” Yeosang sighed half sarcastically. “My apologies Yunho, I'll try to not let it happen again.”

“So, as punishment.” Seonghwa said. “Yunho will be cleaning the entire mansion _but_ Mingi and San, you will be helping him. And Yeosang you will be overseeing things to make sure everything is left spotless.”

Yeosang detested any sort of manual labour and rolled his eyes but reluctantly complied.

“Now as for this little baby...” Seonghwa said while scratching under Dotori's chin.

“Her name is Dotori.” San replied quietly, having finally fully extracted himself from Yunho's sweater. “And we have already taken care of it.”

“One of San's familiars will be coming to adopt her early next week.” Yunho continued.

“Ah, good good.” Seonghwa said. “This has been quite the learning experience for all of you now hasn't it?”

All but Yeosang nodded. “If you need me I'll be seeing to Wooyoung and Jongho.” Yeosang announced dryly as he left the room.

“So how did you end up finding Dotori?” San asked.

“Eden found her and brought her to me.” Seonghwa said calmly.

“That fucking snitch!” San cursed, getting to his feet.

Seonghwa also rose to his feet, carefully scooping up the kitten as he did so. He walked over to Yunho and passed her to him as she happily mewed.

“I expect her to stay safely in the forge until San's familiar comes to get her next week.” Seonghwa instructed. “No more escapades around the mansion, alright?”

Yunho and San both quietly nodded.

“Uh, Seonghwa... There's something else that you should probably see.” San said quietly.

San lead Seonghwa back to the library to reveal the remains of the broken vase that were scattered across the floor as he hadn't even had the time to attempt to cover it up. Yunho had cautiously followed them from a distance and hung back at the door to the library, cradling the small kitten in his arms as they conversed.

Seonghwa walked over to the pieces of vase and crouched down beside them, picking up one of the larger pieces and examining it in his hands. He let out a long disappointed sigh.

“This vase used to belong to my mentor.” Seonghwa said solemnly. “Back when I was still human. I had kept it hidden for centuries...”

“Seonghwa, I am so sorry.” San apologizes.

“No need to apologize, I know it wasn't your fault.” Seonghwa said looking back over his shoulder at Dotori.

“Seonghwa...” Yunho started to say, a lump in his throat. “I am willing to work as long as it takes to pay you back for the damage Dotori has caused.”

“Don't be foolish, Yunho. You could work until your last dying breath and I still don't think you would be able to accrue enough money. This vase was priceless, truly one of a kind from the Goryeo era. In all honesty it probably should have been kept in a museum... but I cherished it too much to let it out of my hands.”

Yunho was absolutely gutted at Seonghwa's comment.

Seonghwa quickly picked up on the fact that what he had said may have been a little harsh for someone with such a finite lifespan. “I apologize, that was out of line for me to say.” He sighed. “I let me emotions get the better of me in that brief instant.”

Seonghwa got back to his feet. “Just, the two of you, promise me you'll be more careful in the future. And no more surprise guests.”

Both San and Yunho nodded frantically.

“It's too bad Hongjoong wasn't able to save both the vase and the kitten.” San muttered as they turned to leave.

“What was that?” Seonghwa asked, giving San a concerned look.

“Hongjoong. He got concussed trying to save the kitten when the vase accidentally got knocked off the shelf.”

“Oh dear...” Seonghwa said with another heavy sigh. “I may have been unnecessarily harsh with him as well. I had not known he had sacrificed his safety for our furry little friend... if you will excuse me, I really should go attend to him.”

Seonghwa brushed past Yunho and exited the library and bounded up the main stairs, taking two at a time, on the way to Hongjoong's room.

\--

Hongjoong lay face down, starfished on his mattress. His head was still swimming but at least he could feel the effects of the concussion lessening by the minute.

“This is going to take a lot of getting used to.” He mumbled into the duvet.

He suddenly sensed the presence of someone standing over him and quickly flipped over onto his back only to see Seonghwa standing over him looking absolutely devastated. Hongjoong sat up to face him.

“Is something wrong?”

“Hongjoong... please forgive me as my arrogance has led to your injury once again.” Seonghwa pleaded.

“You really need to stop blaming yourself for everything.” Hongjoong sighed. “I got injured from my own stupidity not—”

“Yes but I had known about the situation for weeks. And I just sat on it. If I had dealt with it back then—”

“If you keep using cause and effect as the main principle in blaming yourself, everything is going to end up weighing you down with guilt. I don't care how old you are, it _will_ eventually break you. You need to let people learn from their own mistakes and not feel responsible for every possible outcome.”

Seonghwa gave a long sigh. He knew Hongjoong was right.

“Maybe one day, my love. Maybe one day...”

***

The night after Seonghwa had scolded everyone, Mingi felt the need to go apologize to Jongho. He had wanted to apologize that same night but couldn't even bring himself to confront Jongho after seeing how sick he had become.

Jongho reluctantly let him into his room and Mingi basically groveled at his feet stating how sorry he was over and over again.

“Please forgive me, I really didn't know.” Mingi said, completely devastated. “Sometimes... sometimes it's been so long that I just forget about normal human things.”

“Mingi you are blowing this way out of proportion. It's fine, really. I'll be okay in a week or so.” Jongho replied to Mingi's sudden actions.

“Yeah but, you're my familiar and it's my job to make sure you're safe.” Mingi continued, still sitting on his knees on the floor. “To tell you the truth, I've never really had all that many familiars. The others, they've all had dozens... but you're only my 4th. So it's sort of a big deal to me.”

Jongho raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“I promise never to let anything happen to you like this ever again. I'm so sorry Jongho.” Mingi continues.

Jongho repeatedly tells Mingi it's okay to an annoying degree as Mingi continued apologizing for another 15 minutes.

“If you want to make yourself useful, you can help me apply the salve Seonghwa prepared for me. I have trouble reaching my back.” Jongho tossed a small plastic jar to Mingi who cautiously opened the lid and took a strong whiff of the combination of lavender, lemon and peppermint scents.

“Wow what is this stuff?” Mingi asked curiously.

“Seonghwa says it's an old all natural remedy that will help relieve my allergy symptoms. And it seems to work pretty well.” Jongho rolled up his large sweater and yanked it over his head revealing the large pink patches along his chest, back and neck from the allergic reaction.

Mingi pouted while noticing how angry Jongho's skin looked. “Jongho, I really am s—”

“Yeah I know. Now shut up and apply the salve. Apologies won't stop the itching.”

Mingi got to work cautiously applying the concoction Seonghwa had made on Jongho's back and chest. He gently tipped Jongho's chin upwards so he could get the last few spots on his neck. Mingi, being in close proximity to Jongho's neck, gave a deep inhale.

“Mmm you smell like peppermint.” Mingi said.

“Kiss me.” Jongho blurted out and Mingi froze, his nose inches from Jongho's collarbone.

“...Huh?”

“I've become a complete hermit and I've been so touch-starved recently, just... just kiss me.”

Mingi happily obliged and gently kissed up Jongho's neck, enjoying the light lemony and minty taste of his skin. Jongho turned to face him and gave him a quick kiss on the lips before pulling away.

“Thank you.” Jongho said so quietly it was almost a whisper.

Mingi cracked a toothy grin and continued to kiss and cuddle Jongho to his heart's desire and vowed to do so every night if he wished until Jongho was feeling back to his usual self again.

***

The day finally came when San's familiar arrived at the mansion to take Dotori. Yunho, San and Seonghwa had all gathered in the foyer to see the little kitten off.

“Thank you so much for doing this.” San said sadly as Yunho passed the small box bed containing Dotori in it over to his familiar. “I know you will take good care of her and I hope she brings your daughter just as much happiness as she brought us over this short time...”

“Her name is Dotori.” Yunho added, his voice cracking. “She loves chin scratches and... and...” Yunho couldn't stop himself from crying and quickly turned away and buried his face into Seonghwa's shoulder.

The small kitten gave a tiny mew and San completely lost his bearings as well as tears started streaming down his face.

“I apologize, it has been an emotional couple of weeks.” Seonghwa said with a light laugh as he comforted Yunho.

“Farewell, Dotori.” Yunho muttered as the familiar gave a last goodbye and they watched as she carried Dotori out to her waiting car. “I'll miss you, my little acorn...”

Even stoic Mingi, who had holed himself away in his security room, may or may not shed a couple tears in private as he watched Dotori head off on the video feed.

***

Yunho had accepted his punishment and spent each night for nearly a week cleaning the entire mansion. San and Mingi would also help in shifts, San more so than Mingi who suddenly felt a strong need to 'fulfill his security duties' more rigorously. Yunho and San both presumed that meant he was instead sneaking naps in the security room when in reality he was spending every waking moment with Jongho. Yeosang technically was supposed to be supervising them but would often disappear after the first hour or so.

Towards the end of the first night, Yunho was exhausted and out of breath from scrubbing the foyer floor and had taken a break sitting on the main staircase. San emerged from one of the side rooms after he had finished cleaning that particular room, looking like he hadn't even broken a sweat with not a single hair out of place.

“Where's Yeosang?” San asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Dunno.” Yunho sighed. “He disappeared around 7pm and I haven't seen him since.”

“It's sort of BS that he can skip out on his punishment while we have to work all night.” San grumbled.

“Whatever, he's like 150 years old. He's probably dealt with enough of Seonghwa's punishments to last a lifetime.” Yunho laughed.

“Well, at least _we_ don't need to suffer anymore.” San piped up taking hold of Yunho's wrist and pulling him to his feet.

San dragged the weary Yunho through the mansion until they reached the spa.

“Treat yo self, as the kids say.” San gave a grin as he turned on one of the faucets to start filling the large bath with hot water. “Make yourself comfortable and I'll bring you something to eat.” San said with a wink as he gave Yunho a pat on the shoulder as he left the room.

After the bath was half-filled, Yunho cautiously submerged himself. The heat was soothing on his aching muscles and he leaned his head against the edge of the tub.

It wasn't long at all before San returned with a glass of cold water and a platter of fruit for Yunho. San dangled some grapes in front of Yunho's nose and Yunho attempted to eat them off the bunch while quietly laughing.

“Is there anything else you require, my liege~” San said with an over-the-top fake accent.

“No, no, carry on.” Yunho dramatically replied with a wide grin and a wave of his hand. “Actually, as a royal decree I command you to get your ass in here and join me.”

San gave a high pitched laugh and did not hesitate to hop in the bath with Yunho. The two of them stayed in the spa until the sun was starting to rise, Yunho having dozed off resting his head on San's shoulder.

\--

The second night of Yunho's punishment was much more difficult than the first.

The sun had barely set when there was a knock on the door to Yunho's bedroom. Yunho continued to stay fast asleep. After a brief pause, the door quietly opened and a dreary looking Yeosang entered the room and shuffled over to the side on the bed.

“Yunho.” He called groggily. “Yunho it is time to wake up.”

He stood there with his arms crossed and gave out a long sigh before reaching out and giving Yunho a small shake. He gasped awake, Yeosang didn't even flinch.

“Yeosang?” Yunho asked while rubbing his eyes and flattening down his hair.

“It's time for you to start cleaning.” Yeosang said in a monotone.

“Right, right I'll be up in a minute.” Yunho mumbled.

He tried to get out of bed but every muscle in his body suddenly screamed in protest and he gave a painful groan.

“Is everything alright?” Yeosang asked, his arms still crossed.

“I think I overdid things a little yesterday.” Yunho mumbled. “I'm so sore today.”

“When was the last time you took some of San's blood?”

“4... maybe 5 days ago?”

“Wait here, I'll be right back.”

Several minutes passed and Yeosang returned with a sleepy San in tow.

“Yunho, what's wrong? Yeosang seems worried.” San asked in a sleepy, childish voice.

Yunho looked at Yeosang whose deadpan expression did not give an air of concern about him at all.

“I, uh, can't exactly get out of bed.” Yunho said with a bit of a nervous laugh.

San quickly and quietly climbed up onto the bed, straddling Yunho. He dragged a fingernail along his tongue, causing blood to start pooling on the tip. Without hesitation he leaned down and kissed Yunho deeply. Yunho subconsciously let out a long, deep groan out of satisfaction and how good it felt to have San's blood coursing through him again, reliving the muscle pain. San pulled away and just looked deeply into his eyes before cracking one of his warm dimpled smiles.

“Thank you.” Yunho said quietly as he pulled San back in for another kiss.

“I'll be back in 15 minutes.” Yeosang said with an eye roll as he left the room.

“Just enough time...” San said slyly with a raised eyebrow as Yunho giggled beneath him.

***

Seonghwa had been gone from the mansion for a couple nights due to important Bureau meetings that he was required to attend with Eden. While he was gone, San has been sporadically staying up during the day to piece together the ancient vase again. He had been working relentlessly despite figuring out that it was much harder trying to rebuild a vase when he had no original reference photos to go off of so it was a painstakingly slow task.

On one of these days, Hongjoong had awoken abruptly having had one of his night terrors, unfortunately having to suffer through it alone. To ease his mind a bit, he had decided to walk around the mansion to try and possibly find a more comforting place to rest other than his large, empty bed.

As Hongjoong wandered the halls he heard some strange noises (and mild cursing) coming from the library. At first he thought it might have been a familiar coming to the house to run some errands only to be surprised to find San in there sitting at a small table on the floor, frantically trying to match pieces of vase.

“San?” Hongjoong called from the door to the library when he spotted him hard at work.

San looked up briefly before getting back to work. “Little late for you to be up,” he muttered while distracted with his gluing.

“Yeah, I couldn't sleep.” Hongjoong replied as he walked over to take a closer look.

“You can help if you want.” San muttered.

Hongjoong sat down in front of the small floor table San was at without another word. San passed him a small pile of shards and the two of them got to work gluing everything back together.

\--

Seonghwa and Eden eventually returned to the mansion late one night, both visibly exhausted.

“I will meet you in the feeding room shortly.” Seonghwa told Eden as they entered the mansion. “I just need a moment to take care of something.”

While Eden left for the feeding room, Seonghwa headed to the closest empty room which just happened to be the library. After closing the doors behind him, he locked them in a manner that was somewhat uncharacteristic to him. Wandering over to the nearest sofa, he slumped down onto the plush cushions, leaning forward and burying his head in his hands and repeatedly rubbing his face, collecting his thoughts.

He sat up and leaned his head so that it was resting against the the back of the sofa and closed his eyes briefly as if desperately trying to compose himself after the stress of the past few days. Taking in a deep breath, he opened his eyes and just stared at the ceiling. Rolling his head to his left he noticed something familiar sitting on the nearby table. He sat up to take a better look only to see that it was the vase that had previously been destroyed, completely rebuilt. Seonghwa curiously got up from his seat and walked over, noticing a small note tucked under it. Carefully he removed the paper to read what it said without disturbing the vase.

_I know this doesn't really fix things but at least the memory can be whole again._

_\- San_

_P.S. Hongjoong sort of helped too._

Seonghwa let out a quiet little laugh and quickly held the paper up to cover his face, suddenly feeling oddly overwhelmed over something so small. It took him a moment to compose himself again.

“Thank you.” He whispered.

He gave his hair a bit of a ruffle, straightened his suit jacket and proceeded to unlock and exit the library to join Eden in the feeding room as if nothing at all had just occurred.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Twitter @ ColourAndCity_ or CC @ ColourAndCity.  
> Or just yell into the void.


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